Ships Pass CDC Exams

February 2, 2001

Two cruise ships -- Club Med 2 and Windjammer Legacy -- that have languished on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vessel Sanitation Program list-of-shame, have passed new exams. The CDC’s program requires all cruise ships stopping at American ports of call to submit to rigorous semi-annual testing on everything from quality of water to galley cleanliness.

Club Med 2, which had its unfortunate 77 listed on the VSP¹s flunking chart for eight months, rebounded with an awesome 99. Legacy did almost as well; the only Windjammer ship to call at American ports, well port -- St. Thomas -- snared a 93, after having resided on the list with a 79 since May.

What took the CDC so long for the respective retests? Typically, the CDC reinspects ships that fail within a month but in both cases these ships took off for summer itineraries in strictly foreign waters and only just returned to the U.S. for winter sailings.